


Entering the Void, We Divide in Hope

by ShineWriter



Category: Sleepless Domain
Genre: Being Meguca Is Suffering, Cube is overlord lol, Gen, Tribute, a little body horror bc monsters so be careful, bud is gossip central and also enforcer of laws, cassidy i miss u
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25063600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShineWriter/pseuds/ShineWriter
Summary: Tragedy, love. The point in life isn’t to live the extremes exclusively - although some end up split apart by them.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. How To Say Goodbye

Undine jumped next to me, looking behind me and stopping in front of the weight room door. I heard a throat clear - I know that voice. 

“Hey.” 

I turned. Cassidy wore her normal clothes, not weight room clothes or her magical girl outfit. I stepped between them anyway, just to be careful. 

“I came to apologize. I won’t be with the club today; you don’t need to worry.” 

“You weren’t at school today,” I commented. 

Cassidy sighed, still looking at her feet. “Yeah, I… had a bit more trouble than usual last night with monsters, but the doctors cleared me. Um. I kinda pestered them to let me come at least to the last part of class. I wanted to tell you today.” 

She shifted to Undine’s direction but didn’t look up. “I shouldn’t have pried, and I shouldn’t have assumed the worst of you. I was scared for Kokoro, and I should’ve trusted her judgement and you as a person instead of lashing out like that. I’m sorry.” 

Undine nodded. I thought about the comment she made last night. _“Believe me, I am mad,”_ or something, _“but now I’m just frustrated. It reminded me of what I’ve been doing”._

I responded to Cassidy. “I’m still upset, but I’m glad you apologized. I think we all need some time to cool down, so let’s discuss this again later, okay?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, chastised, staring at her shoes. “Have a good day, guys.” 

When we couldn’t hear her walking anymore, Undine exhaled in relief. 

“Uh,” I started. “Uh let’s go into the room now ahaha.” 

Undine smiled and walked in; I followed. 

I commented offhandedly, “Pretty weird she called me Kokoro.” 

Cassidy’s steps seemed off too. She likes to lean to her left when she has to explain something, but she's been standing up straight this whole time, and her steps seemed too even and smooth. Didn’t even fidget with her hands. 

She must have been pretty nervous, I guessed. 

_~ 8 < ~_

“Ready?” Undine called out from where she perched on the roof’s gutter, a hand thrown back, ready to call forth some waves. 

“Got it!”

The barrier across the walls and windows, tinting everything in a layer of glowing color, was mainly pink, with horizontal purple stripes along the edges and some orange design in the windows. I hadn’t looked closely at it yet. We were up on the roof, duh. At this point, it was 10:15 or so. 

The monsters that night were small orb-y things, hard to punch and do damage. 

I jumped off the roof, knocked one to Undine, and she smashed it against another into a wall with her water borble. 

“Next!”

“Okay!”

Compared to two nights ago, there were barely any monsters at all. 

The orbs were dark purple with blue ball things floating - bouncing? - inside them. They had a big blue marking on their back - top? - in the shape of an eye. 

What we thought were yellow tails were not. 

The monsters had dissipated, and I thought, _that looks like Kick’s tail sort of,_ when Undine shouted in surprise. 

The tail thing was actually a yellow something-monster, which grabbed her leg like a ribbon.

_“Get off!”_ Undine yelled, using a jet of water to unravel it and throw it into the wall. 

The night was pretty easy, considering how many big monsters were out before. Cassidy apparently had a hard time back then, too. 

When I walked by a window, after about thirty minutes of easy chump monsters, my heart flipped in my chest. I told myself to chill. 

“What the hell?” 

Undine ran up to the window with me. “What’s wrong?”

I squinted at the markings, studying them closely. 

“The barrier usually isn’t this...detailed. It’s pretty abstract most nights, right?” 

Undine shivered. “Yeah. It already was giving me creeps. The purple looks like _that girl,_ and the pink reminds me of Tessa. But now…” 

“Yeah. This reminds me of Cassidy, almost. Every girl has colors though,” I squeezed her shoulder, “and the barrier changes every night, so it’s not that bad. No one’s… you know, since.” 

“Yeah.”

Undine gave it a side look before continuing down the street. I glanced again to memorize it, then followed her. 

_Orange bows with an eye in the middle…what the hell?_ There were five on that window, changing size down and across the glass surface. 

If the founder really did design these barriers, a common theory, they be big dumby. That does NOT help morale to be creeped out by the buildings when there’s lots of creepy monsters to do that job. 

_~ 8 < ~_

“So how’re things with Cassidy?”

“Awkward,” Vedika rubbed the back of her head with a hand, “but not too bad. She seems pretty contrite, just really hesitant around me. I mean, it’s fair…” Vedika sighed. “I feel like it’s kinda my fault she did that.” 

“What?!”

Vedika held up a hand. “Before telling me not to blame myself, hear me out.”

I nodded. 

I had stopped Vedika on the way to lunch and we walked to an out of the way area to talk. Hard to find, but I found all of them already. We talked in the white hall by the windows, down towards the south end of the school. People avoid it because of a rumor of a ghost. 

Vedika leaned against the light on the panes. 

“I trained with Undine. I noticed she was hiding something, and I had told Cassidy. I shouldn’t have-”

“You didn’t know she was gonna-”

_“It still wasn’t my business!”_ Vedika recollected herself. “For all I know, she could’ve been trying to make sure I didn’t see the night Team Alchemical…was gone. I shouldn't have said _anything._ It was an accident that I should have let be. Now everyone’s awkward and hostile and it’s all my fault-”

“Don’t-”

“Don’t blame myself, I know.” 

Vedika looked up at me with watery eyes. 

“But sometimes I think blame is needed.” 

Someone dropping their bag a few halls down startled us. Vedika and I looked at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes since lunch started. 

“I better go.”

“Yeah, good luck.” I waved her goodbye, still frowning a little.

“Don’t worry too much, HP. I won’t do anything rash. I think we all learned our lesson on that.”

_…_

Vedika turned left and vanished behind the wall corner. 

_They’ve all been taking what Undine said pretty well. Harley and Bud need to chill about knocking the girl thing’s block off, but… doing alright. Cassidy hasn’t pried and kept her distance like she said.  
I heard from Bud that Cassidy’s parents almost reported Cassidy missing when she didn’t come home for two nights. Apparently Cassidy’s mom yelled when Cassidy came out of her room - her mom realized Cassidy had been waking up early and leaving for school without eating breakfast, and is making Cassidy eat with them and “talk about her problems”, in quotation marks. _

_Bud even told us her source when Harley questioned her._

_“And who did you hear that from this time?”_

_“Cassidy herself.”_

_“What?!”_

_“Yeah, we had a chat. I didn’t do anything, don’t look at me like that.”_

Undine and I agreed we should tell everyone not to fight this girl head-on. Undine wanted to, but I pointed out that if everyone in the club sees Undine acting like we should fight that girl, they will take the chance to fight her and get hurt. 

I thought Undine seemed upset with me for that, but she’s been acting cheery at lunch. 

When I sat down, opening my lunchbox, I saw Cassidy eating at the base of a tree, keeping her distance and her back to us. I got to lunch late, but five minutes later, Cassidy walked inside and deposited her tray, then left the lunch hall. 

“Cassidy always takes forever to eat…” I muttered. 

“What?” Harley asked. 

“Nothing.”

_“What’s wrong with it? I like to savor every flavor!” she said before._

_I don’t feel_ bad _about… well. She messed up. Maybe we can fix it, but Undine needs to know she’s safe. Cassidy has to work through her problems, and I’m not the one she talks to for that._

Vedika staring at me caught my eye. 

_Later, talk,_ she mouthed. I nodded and took a gulp of my protein shake, trying to distract myself with Bud’s outrageous story about a girl getting her foot stuck in a toilet at Future’s Promise this morning. 

“That sounds fake!”

“It is not!”

Undine stared at the tree leaves outside with a cold expression. 

_~ 8 < ~_

Ten days after Cassidy did what she did, I got a call from Undine. 

I made sure, like usual now, to look at Kicks, my cat, before answering. 

“HP?”

“Yeah?”

“I need you in front of my house,” Undine’s voice sounded strained, “right now.” 

I hesitated for a moment. 

“I’m on my way.” 

_The barrier comes on in ten minutes. If we hadn’t all gone to our houses, we would have been together training._

_I shouldn’t have taken the suggestion to leave off club for today, maybe, but…_

_“I said I’d meet with Cassidy, sorry.”_

_“I have some stuff to do, too,” Bud interrupted, “so let’s take a break!”_

_“What?” Harley dragged the word out. “You’re kidding.”_

_“Nope,” Bud popped the ‘p’ sound._

_I tried to mediate. “Okay, so how many people are busy tonight?”_

_Bud and Vedika raised their hands._

_Harley reluctantly put a hand up. “I know you’ll ask me to come.”_

_“You have learned well.”_

_“I didn’t learn anything! Wait-”_

_“Oof.”_

_“Stop!”_

_“Uh, Undine,” I asked, “is there anything you want to do?”_

_“Some time at home to just...relax, would be nice, I guess. Work on some homework before the barrier comes on.”_

_“Don’t you want a break?” Harley asked._

_“Nah,” Undine shook her head, “I have too much energy, haha!”_

_I pumped my fist. “Okay, we’ll adjourn today’s club meeting! See you gals tomorrow!”_

_We said goodbyes._

_I stopped Undine. “Have a place you want to meet?”_

_“Oh...the field, I guess. I’ll meet you there.”_

_“Is that close enough to your house?”_

_“Sure! I’ll leave early.”_

I was about to leave my dorm and jump to the field, but Undine was still at home for some reason. 

“Time to go, Kicks, I’ll see you later! Mwah!”

I gave Kicks a good scrub on the head, receiving a petulant meow, before I ran out and transformed. 

“Undine, I’m here!” 

_The barrier hasn’t come up yet. I’ve got five minutes before it does, right?_

I knew the street to her house and where she was, but I didn’t want to knock on her door suddenly. 

Undine opened the door to her townhome, crying. 

_Shit._

“Undine?”

She motioned me inside. I ran in. She shut the door. We stood just inside the doorway. 

“Tessa called.”

The sense of dread weighing me down since Undine called swirled about. 

Undine dried her face on her shirt before responding. 

“That girl… Tessa said there was writing on her window a while back, and a few nights ago, a magical girl knocked on her window. The girl looked like Cassidy from Tessa’s description, but she- oh _great founder, Kokoro!”_

Undine kept crying. I held her as the final announcement came on for the barrier activation. 

“Girls? You’re still here?”

“Mom…”

_Undine’s mom! Make a good impression!_

Her mom perked up, then saw her daughter crying. 

“Baby! What happened?”

“I, don’t want to talk about it. We need to go out. Kokoro?”

“Yeah, I’m coming. Have a nice night, Mrs. Wells!”

I tried to salute but it was more stilted than usual. 

Undine’s mom grabbed her in a hug before she reached the door. 

“I’m always here, baby.”

“O-ka-y.”

Undine pulled away, wiping tears. We broke the barrier around the door temporarily and heard Mrs. Wells lock it behind us. 

The helpless look her mom had flashed in my face. 

“Oh, Founder…” Undine looked out at the barrier. 

I did too. 

“Founder.”

_~ 8 < ~ _

The monsters were horrible. 

They were coiled springs with block heads and hands. Human sized. They didn’t seem to have teeth until the top opened up and lunged at us. 

Undine kept running. I followed her, both of us sprinting across the rooftops. 

The monsters were purple, each spring colored in one of three colors. 

They had alchemical signs on their block hands. Fire, earth, air. Undine sobbed the longer we were out. 

The barrier was gold colored with pink trim. Pink triangles along the bottom edge of the buildings. The windows were red and orange, patterned like the night Team Alchy died. The street was black and purple like a void or a really large hole. 

I started to wonder who exactly controlled the barrier designs. 

I figured Undine was leading us to Tessa’s place. 

I flung a heart punch at a monster that catapulted itself towards us. 

“Where are we going?”

“Tessa! She can explain.” 

Undine turned, bashing two monsters with water. 

Her pupils were glowing pink, illuminating her tears. 

“I don’t think she’s safe. I want to make sure-”

“Yeah, of course!” I hugged her. “I trust you, okay? We’ll do whatever we need to do.”

Undine sniffed. “Okay.”

At this point, I didn’t think the girl Tessa saw was Cassidy at all, since Cassidy was planning to be at home all of tonight. She twisted an ankle the other day and wanted to work on strategy planning with her powers. All according to Bud, and Vedika backed this up. Harley looked left out. A lot of drama, but not directly related to this monster girl thing. A lot of girls can have orange colors or a short haircut, and Undine didn’t mention hearing about any giant scissors, which would have been the first thing to mention. 

Undine slowed down as we approached Tessa’s home. 

“Okay, quickly-,” Undine crouched a few roofs away, “-Tessa called me because whoever she saw in her window said ‘I’m the reason Team Alchemical died, and the blue-haired one’s next - unless you want to volunteer’.” 

Her words were broken by short sobs that she muffled. 

“It looked like a silhouette, but she said the girl had short hair and a poofy dress, and when I asked for details, Tessa said her weapon looked like scissors in her left hand. She said her eyes were glowing. I told her I’d come right away to check on her and hung up.” 

“She’s probably upset,” Undine continued, “but at least she’ll be safe, I think.”

“Yeah.” I nodded, mulling over what I heard. “Do you know what girls are in this area now?”

“Team Flight, I think. And Team Heel is farther away. A solo, Bitter Bash, should run by here around midnight. She makes a point to check Tessa’s house around then since she lost her powers, so whenever this happened was before or after she left.” 

“Okay. Oh shit.”

“What?”

“Is that-”

Tessa’s room must have been the window on the second floor, because as we watched, three familiars stack themselves and squish down. A magical girl in purple and cream-orange, with a bow on her head and large scissors in her left hand, jumped into view from somewhere and onto them, letting them lift her to the window. 

Undine was barely breathing. 

I took Undine’s hand and counted to three, helping her breathe. Cassidy tapped on Tessa’s window. We heard Tessa tap back. 

Undine whispered, “What is she doing…” 

The front door clicked open and shut quickly. 

Tessa stood untransformed in the middle of a street, three monsters and a magical girl who was not fighting them watching her. 

Undine almost yelled and I covered her mouth. “On three…” 

Cassidy jumped down. “Ready to go? I’ll make this quick.” 

“One.”

Tessa was shaking and nodding. 

“Two.”

Cassidy stabbed her scissors into the ground and they melted out of her hands, into a puddle of dark purple. 

“Three-”

A head appeared-

“-shit wait!”

Undine barely stopped. “Why are we waiting?!” she hissed hysterically. 

I pointed to the monster girl’s eye. “Weak spot.” 

Undine narrowed her eyes. 

“Got it.”

I tensed. “Two one go!”

We leapt. Undine aimed for the sludge head with a water jet, jumping between Tessa, it, and Cassidy. I landed next Undine, throwing energy hearts at Cassidy, who took the blow and wheezed a laugh. 

“Cassidy?”

_That is really not Cassidy._

Tessa and Undine were screaming at each other while Undine looked for the monster girl, who disappeared into the ground again. 

I stared at Cassidy. 

“Cassidy…”

“Wrong!” she trilled. 

Cassidy’s dark orange part of her costume were dark purple like the monster girl’s sludge. She favored her right ankle. 

“What did… what did she do to you?!”

Cassidy’s skin was pale purple. Her weapon reformed in her right hand, scissors with the handles now purple. 

“She made me better.” 

Her eyes were dripping purple ink, wide and terrified. 

“Like she did,” Cassidy separated her scissors into two blades, one in each hand, “to Team Alchemical. But,” the handles turned to purple ribbons that wrapped her hands and wrists, “I get to be _useful_ in my death.” 

She wheezed something that was supposed to be a laugh. 

The scissor blades split again, merged with her hands, and I backed away towards Undine, who stopped yelling with Tessa and was watching the ground, holding three head-sized water borbles. 

“Undine-” I warned, “-time to go!”

The worst part was how she felt. 

Magical girls can sense monsters, but from far away Cassidy didn’t feel like one. When I got close to her, I could feel it like a jarring drumbeat, and it got louder when her hands fused. Whatever was here wasn’t Cassidy, if it ever was. 

Undine swung Tessa into her arms like a bride, then water-stepped upward, ignoring Tessa’s shout of surprise. I threw more heart punches at monsters coming close and stepped away from Cassidy as she strode forward. 

I jumped to the roof Undine and Tessa occupied, flinging a look back. 

Cassidy stared at me, the thing that looked like Cassidy but had no part of her left. 

She was still crying. 

_**~ 8 < ~** _


	2. Press Y to Cut

Vedika stared at me and detransformed. She stood silent before breaking down. 

“No... _no…”_ She swung off her glasses and stood in the hall. Inside the weight room, Harley stared at the floor. Bud started cursing and kicked a yoga ball into a wall - it popped with the force. 

“I should have known.”

“Bud-”

“I talked with her - _it_ \- the most times this week! She’s - _it’s been_ avoiding Vedika, and I should have known. They were best friends, at least as good as. Why would she avoid her unless she had something to hide? Vedika would have realized she - _it_ wasn’t Cassidy, and that’s why Vedika wanted to check on her anyway. Everything’s been off this whole time. 

“I went with Vedika to Cassidy’s house, and Harley came with me, but Cassidy wasn’t there. That _thing_ must have planned for Vedika to be MIA and waiting for Cassidy while it went to Aether’s house.” 

Bud turned to Undine. “Should I call her Aether or Tessa?”

Undine continued stifling her sobs. “I think she prefers Tessa, but I’m not entirely sure.” 

“Tessa’s fine.” Tessa returned from “the bathroom” where she was during the retelling, pausing when she walked past Vedika before entering the room. In a daze, she looked at the training equipment. “Gwen used to come here a lot,” she murmured, absentminded, as if she wasn’t dividing her thoughts and spoken words. 

I asked Gabby if we could have the room for fifteen minutes. I told everyone, in order, what happened prior to last night. Undine told them, the night after Cassidy attacked her, about the monster girl and Team Alchemical. I asked Vedika to transform and link us for the last part, last night, when we saw Cassidy and Undine called me. I couldn’t say it out loud. 

The grief kept eating at me. 

_She said she’s dead. The last thing I said to her. There’s nothing I could have done, I didn’t know. Founder, this is shit._

Bud paced, shaking with anger. “This is why - all of this, this whole time she’s been dead!”

Tessa flinched. Undine grabbed her hand. They shared a silent look. Tessa didn’t let go. 

“But that girl-monster didn’t expect Harley and I to be with Vedika, right? She must have planned _something_ for us, or maybe she thought we wouldn’t be able to get in the way.” 

“Bud,” Harley spoke up, “you need to stop shouting.”

“I-”

“Gabby’s pacing the halls somewhere and other people have clubs too. They could hear you.” Harley’s tone was flat. She hadn’t looked up from the floor. “As far as we know even _‘Cassidy’_ or that thing could hear you. So don’t make a plan loudly like that.” 

My heart twinged. “Harley, how are ya doing?”

“Oh, finding out my friend’s dead and I’ve been talking to her corpse hasn’t gone as badly as it could have.”

The whole room winced or stepped back. Vedika gave Harley a look through the doorway. 

I took a deep breath. “It’s shit. Yeah. And I don’t think we’re all up to fighting tonight-”

“Wha-”

 _“But_ we can’t let Cas- her- that thing roam around anymore. It would be cruel to Cassidy if her body was used to hurt any more people than it has been. ...She wanted to be a hero. Yeah, she screwed up, and every one of us has done something we regret with everything in us. Cassidy shouldn’t have died, and we’ll make sure no one thinks she’s this monster. 

“We have to end this tonight.” 

The room stayed quiet. Vedika walked in. 

“I agree with you, but let’s take it outside. Gabby’s coming down the far hall, and it’s been fifteen minutes now.” 

She dried her glasses. 

“I’ll take that thing alone if I have to.” 

Undine squeaked. “Um! Let’s all stay together! _Please.”_

“Noted,” Bud called over her shoulder as she walked to the back door of the clubroom that led to the field. 

Harley looked at me. “I’ll cry when this is over, I just… I want it to be over.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not - it’s not that it doesn’t hurt-”

I hugged Harley. “I get it. Let’s do this.”

[<3]

I had a face to picture now, when I thought of the monster terrorizing Undine and killing her team. I relived Cassidy stabbing her scissors into the ground and it appearing, and watching Cassidy cry tears the same color as the street we were on. 

We strategized and planned. 

We went out in a group and watched each other’s backs. 

Sky blue barrier, dark blue windows. It would have been calming. 

The monsters looked like hand-stitched dolls, and the larger ones were crawling chrysanthemums. 

Tessa stayed with us since her home wasn’t that safe anymore. She told us she had a magical girl friend named Rue who went to her school, but they had a falling out. Tessa said she’d let Rue know what’s happening tomorrow. 

We never found Cassidy. 

[<3]

“I thought you were coming over to my house tonight?”

“What?” Vedika yelped. 

“What.” Cassidy raised an eyebrow. She put a hand on her hip, leaning to her left side. “You wanted to talk, right? Then you ghosted me? What’s the deal?”

“...What color was the barrier last night.”

“Blue? I was inside, but I saw the light.” 

“And the day before that?”

“Green and white, when I hurt my ankle.”

“...” 

“What’s up? Why do you look- Vedika! What’s wrong?!” 

Cassidy shouted as Vedika ran away. 

Cassidy fidgeted with her hands. “Now what did I do wrong… she must be mad at me. For another thing. Did I say something?” 

She winced as she put pressure on her right ankle. She mumbled to herself. 

“Ugh. I can’t even remember how I did that…stupid.” 

[<3]

“She can’t remember!”

“Gah!”

Vedika threw the bathroom door open. We were in a passing period and, again, I was somewhere that people were avoiding. The third bathroom on the first floor. 

Rumors that a boy ghost haunted the toilet kept people away, especially after a ghost-seeing magical girl confirmed it, to her friends’ and the school’s horror. 

Funny how we’re more scared of ghosts than things that can kill us, huh. 

The gals in the club know I use this bathroom almost exclusively. I was alone, except for the ghost, probably, so I was very unhappy about being scared. 

Especially _because_ only the club gals know. 

Cassidy used to know. 

I opened the stall door. 

“Now say what now?”

Vedika gasped for breath. “Cassidy can’t remember last night.”

I froze, then turned on the sink. 

“She thinks last night was when we were supposed to meet, and the night before was when she hurt her ankle. She just thinks I blew her off, she can’t remember the night Undine and you and Tessa saw her.” 

I finished washing my hands. 

“HP? Please talk to me, the silence is freaking me out.”

“...Maybe,” I turned around, “Cassidy isn’t dead.”

Vedika gaped. _“What?!”_

There was a match-sized flame of hope in my heart. 

“If she doesn’t know what monster girl is doing, maybe she’s alive in there! Maybe Cassidy just got hijacked and not killed the night she went off alone. Have you talked to any of Team Flash?”

“Cassidy hasn’t been going out with them, but I should have checked with them about her behavior. They’re sort of friends, if a bit distant for a team, but they might have seen something at school that we didn’t. I think Flash Powder has chemistry with her.” 

Vedika tapped me. “HP?”

“...It’s a lot, sorry. I don’t know what feels worse, if she’s dead, or if she’s been trapped this whole time…”

Vedika hugged me. 

We both missed parts of class, crying in a haunted, forgotten bathroom over a dead-alive friend. 

[<3]

We saw her tonight. The walls were brown, yellow curls along the edges and rectangles in the windows. 

Her magical girl costume looked normal. We were expecting to find Fake Cassidy, not what seemed like Actual Cassidy. 

Me, Bud, Harley, Undine, Tessa - who won’t stay home, Vedika - who has been taking nights off from the hospital, and Bitter Bash - who saw us with Tessa and demanded to join and would not leave - patrolled in the area around Tessa’s street and, in the case of Bud and Harley, in territory they usually cover, staying as a group. 

Vedika was on edge; her and Tessa were unable to fight monsters, which is why Vedika usually volunteered at the hospital. In her magical girl costume, Vedika also could send and receive thoughts, and she disliked how strong the connection got when she touched a person. 

Bud and Harley were antagonizing Bitter Bash. Bitter Bash apparently knew of Bud’s reputation as gossip, so Bitter Bash was being as cagey as possible while Bud fished for information. Bud probably knew enough about Bitter Bash not to need to, but it might have been a tactic to run Bitter off - a tactic that made no headway. 

Bitter Bash had an armored costume, gray cloth and gold edges, along with a short cape that was lined with dark blue. Her hair was dark blue and eyes gold. We found out she could summon up to three gray swords at one time and wield them with magic. 

Tessa talking to Bitter was more effective. She wanted to know why Bitter was so protective of her, and Bitter was most friendly with her and Undine. I thought she might have been a fan of Team Alchy in the past. 

We were a few streets away from Tessa’s house, near an intersection where Bud and Harley’s territory met with another group’s. 

He heard Cassidy shout from our right. 

_“Hyahhhhh!”_

She came flying into view, head over heels, and skidded on her feet as a bull monster pressed its horns into the blades of her scissors, locking them both in place. It kept pressing her towards a wall where it could pin her. 

Vedika cried out. “Cassidy!”

“Veds!” She perked up. “You’re outside?”

Cassidy pushed the bull back, then used the moment it recovered to put her scissors around her waist. Instead of creating two magic clones of herself by closing the scissors, the middle pin vanished and she pulled the blades apart, one in each hand. 

The group - except Bitter Bash - tensed. 

Cassidy struck one blade against its head - it moved back, then she stabbed the other into its chest and along its side. 

As the dark pieces dissipated, Cassidy smiled at us. 

“How many’s that, Bud?”

Bud crossed her arms, but her tone was friendly. “A lot. Nice job.” 

Cassidy winced when she saw Undine. “Uh, hey… uh, I can go to another street? Wow, there’s a lot - _Bitter Bash?”_

Bitter nodded. “Heard of you too. ‘Sup?”

“Doing good,” she glanced at her ankle, “I guess. Who’s the other girl?” Cassidy looked at Tessa, who wore long pants and a jacket. “Not transformed? Are you hurt?”

Tessa had a strange look on her face between worried, relieved, and fearful. She tried to smile. The mix made her expression sheepish rather than off-putting. “No, I… can’t.” 

“That’s Tessa, from Team Alchy.” I motioned a thumb to Tessa. 

Cassidy blinked, possibly recalling what happened to Team Alchemical. She tried to look chipper. “Hey!”

“Hi.” 

Cassidy’s confused expression bothered me: eyebrows lowered, smiling too wide where her dimples show, her cheeks squishing her eyes upward. It was so normal, just like her, and it hurt a lot because I didn’t know if she was dead and this was a fake, or if this was really Cassidy smiling at us. 

_So this Cassidy doesn’t remember meeting Tessa. The first time she would have met her in person was the window stuff, so…_

“So, um. Should I leave, it looks like you guys have this handled-”

“I’ll come with you.”

Vedika stepped forward. 

“We can chat? I know I’m not much help in fighting, though-”

“No, of course! You can come!” Cassidy beamed and stood taller. “I can protect you!”

_This is a bad idea for multiple reasons, Vedika._

_I know, but this way I can keep an eye on her and find out what’s going on. If we stay in the same general area, I can still communicate. I can let you know what - if anything - happens and how she’s acting._

_… Okay. I don’t like it. Bud, make sure you keep in range with her. Your long distance magic can help if anything happens._

_Of course._

Vedika waved as her and Cassidy ran down the left intersection. We went down the middle street. 

I checked in after a few minutes. 

_How are you doing? Is she okay?_

_She’s keeping her distance, but that’s the only weird thing. She’s careful not to touch me, but… she acts so much like herself. It hurts to see her like this, but it’s better than the other night…_

_Yeah._

I glanced at Undine as her and Harley combo’d a monster. Tessa stood near me, and Bud was a few roofs away, presumably tracking both of our groups. 

_And the way she fights… Did you notice this when you fought the other Cassidy before? She hasn’t made herself into clones, she fights dual-wielding her scissor blades with one in each hand. I think you must’ve noticed, seeing as-_

She paused and looked back at me mentally. _Do you really think she’s in there?_

_I don’t know, but don’t get close to her if you think you’re in danger. Bud can only cover you so much from afar, and she’ll be trying not to hit Cassidy critically, just in case that really is her._

_Yeah._

Vedika nodded and stopped communicating. 

A bull charged at me. I wound up a punch. 

[<3]

“Boom, headshot!” I turned to Vedika, who stood somewhat awkwardly. 

I figured she felt awkward about the situation. “It’s okay you don’t fight, you know. The purpose of a magical girl doesn’t have to be fighting. Right?”

Vedika echoed me. “Right…” 

I know I must have done something _else_ wrong, but… 

All I’ve done lately is keep my distance. I’ve hardly seen anyone from the club except in class and passing them in the hall. Nitrine, Flash Powder, talked to me for a few minutes about if I plan to fight in our team again. I let her know it’s just a little break while I figure out some things about myself. 

I swiped at another bull and cut it through the neck. I checked behind me that none were heading towards Vedika. 

“So do you want to talk?” I asked. 

“Huh?” She was staring at the ground, messing with her costume’s hem. 

_Nevermind..._

I had tried to think on what I did wrong. Everything was hazy and strange all the time, now that I had screwed up so badly. I hardly talked to anyone. I rarely answered questions in class - I could barely remember being _in_ class. My thoughts, muffled with worry, made my memory blink out at random times. I was so upset I couldn’t think, and I felt I must deserve it. 

What kind of _person,_ much less a heroic “Magical Girl”, attacks someone and threatens them on so little information? 

Me. 

I was a horrible Magical Girl. 

“Ah!” 

I spun and ran back at Vedika’s shout. “Veds?!”

Vedika had been trailing behind me as I cleared the street. 

As we fought down the street, we reached an intersection, where two bulls had waited on either street. She jumped when she spotted them. I heard them prepare to charge, lowering the tips of their gnarled tree branch horns. 

I couldn’t sense them at all. 

I asked earlier for us not to use her telepathy; I didn’t want her hearing how clouded my head was, since she has an empathetic reaction with people’s thoughts sometimes. 

I also felt that it was a weakness - I couldn’t concentrate because of the mess _I_ caused. 

I reached her and turned, preparing to split the scissors around my waist. 

_c-a/SSIdy-_yyy/-___/yy_

_“Aaaagghhh!”_

My vision whited out with little dots of black and white static. My chest constricted. 

I made certain my back brushed against Vedika’s chest - _can’t see, don’t want to hit her -_ before I launched both blades toward the heads of the bulls. 

I felt my blades’ magic strike their targets and dissipate with the monsters. 

The screaming grew louder. 

I felt the ground under me. On my left side. 

I was curled up. 

Screaming. 

___//—_

_Ssa_

_dD-//iiyY_

_C__a—Ss_

_-CASSIDY-/_

_Y-ouuu ARe /M-_-In/_E Cas-_

_“Cassidy!” That’s Vedika…_

_“Cassidy! Wake up! A monster hit you, it’s a mental attack! You have to get out!”_

_Vedika’s out there… she’s not someone who fights, I_

_-__//_-_

_I have to save her! I wanted to protect my friends!_

_I may be an idiot, a lot, but I’m not leaving them to die!_

_“CASSIDY!”_ She shrieked. 

I slapped my hands on the ground, pushing myself up. 

My head started to clear. I gripped the stone with my nails - one of the tips of my nails cracked, and I noticed the feeling. 

I could see the ground. Brown barrier over the street tiles. 

I wheezed, summoning my scissors. “Vedika…”

“I’m here!”

“You...haah...hurt?”

“No, I’m okay, the monster didn’t hit me.”

“Cass…?” _HP! She’s here…_

_...here to protect Vedika because I got hit…_

“Sorry, I…” I wobbled on my feet, eyes shut, scissors vanishing. “...didn’t see the attack coming. I’m...sorry.” 

“That’s not your fault,” Harley replied - _is everyone here? They’re fast -_ “monsters are tricky. It’s why people fight together. HP, on the other hand-”

“Don’t you dare-!”

“-got a wedgie when she slipped on a roof when she first started fight- guh!”

“Don’t say it don’t say it don’t don’t don’t!” 

I heard Undine laugh, a light and relieving sound. 

_/__-/i’ll be-/ _h-ere…_-_

I thought I heard someone whisper, but it was too quiet. 

I opened my eyes when the ground mostly stopped moving under me. Everyone was staring at me. 

_Everyone._

I rubbed my head. “Eh, sorry you all had to come back b’cause ‘f me-”

Vedika walked over and slapped me. 

“Ehh?” I blinked at her in shock. 

_“You idiot! Stay with me!”_ She squeezed me in a hug, still transformed. _“You need to be safe, you big stupid.”_

My breath hitched. I squeezed my eyes shut and hugged her back. _“I missed you.”_ Hopefully no one saw me crying, but considering they were all staring, they probably…

Ugh, don’t think about it. 

_I’m so embarrassing. But…_

_I’m not alone anymore…_

[<3]

Cassidy backed against me. 

Static. 

_/-Cassidy, let me in.-/_

_/-It’s time for you to leave.-/_

_/-Let ME IN CASSIDY-/_

_/-I CONTROL you!-/_

_/-GO TO SLEEP-/_

_Get out! Get out of my head! Go away! I don’t want to...be... a monster! You go away! Get out! This is my body!_

I saw her dress morphing - dark purple melting into the orange, parts of her dress altering - she screamed in a blood-curdling cry, making my hairs stand on end - her blades found their marks and vanished - I saw the tinted violet light they gave off as they deconstructed into ribbons of light - she fell and screamed.

She shook, curled up and wailing in pain. I yelled my panicked thoughts to Bud and she sprinted over, the group following. 

Heartful Punch landed next to me, putting an arm between me and Cassidy. “What’s happened to her?”

“That monster girl’s in her head,” I murmured, trembling, watching Cassidy crying on the ground. “I heard her trying to suppress Cassidy’s mind. Cassidy’s fighting her.” 

I had a thought. 

_Give Cassidy something she can fight._

“Cassidy! Wake up! A monster hit you, it’s a mental attack! You have to get out!”

_It’s not a full lie…_

The connection between us remained. I sobbed. 

“It’s so loud,” I whispered. “Cassidy…” 

She stopped shaking, very slowly, in short spasms. 

The magical girls who knew the context for all this tensed. 

_“CASSIDY!”_

_I can’t lose her! Not ever, not this…_

Cassidy’s costume flashed orange and returned itself to normal. 

_Founder._

I cried in relief. 

She propped herself up and summoned her scissors. HP jerked and her fist started glowing. 

_That’s Cassidy!_ I sent her my thoughts. _I can hear her, it’s not the monster girl!_

Heartful Punch didn’t relax, but her fist stopped glowing. 

“Vedika…”

“I’m here!”

“You...haah...hurt?”

“No, I’m okay, the monster didn’t hit me.”

“Cass…?” Kokoro stepped forward. 

We watched her wobble and unsummon her scissors. “Sorry, I…didn’t see the attack coming. I’m...sorry.” 

“That’s not your fault,” Harley relaxed her pose and flicked her gaze to Bud briefly, “monsters are tricky. It’s why people fight together. HP, on the other hand-”

“Don’t you dare-!”

“-got a wedgie when she slipped on a roof when she first started fight- guh!”

“Don’t say it don’t say it don’t don’t don’t!” 

HP panicked and clapped a hand on Harley’s mouth. 

Undine’s sudden laugh broke the silence. I glanced at her - she seemed as surprised as us. Even Tessa seemed cheerful, softly watching her friend. 

_I’ll be here._

I flinched and looked at Cassidy. She didn’t seem to notice the quiet words, still reorienting herself. 

_She’s still there somewhere, that monster girl thing..._

Cassidy opened her eyes, noticed everyone’s gazes, and flushed. She rubbed her hair, fidgeting on her feet. “Eh, sorry you all had to come back b’cause ‘f me-”

I stomped over and smacked her across the cheek. 

“Ehh?”

Cassidy looked at me like I was crazy. 

_“You idiot! Stay with me!”_ I squeezed her against me. _“You need to be safe, you big stupid.”_

With the connection, I could hear her clear mind as if it was a curtain away from mine. Our hearts felt each other through the veil. 

I had horrible control of my powers, but Cassidy had mental shields unlike anyone else I had used my power with - a change caused by the monster girl occupying her head, making sure I didn’t catch her stray thoughts, I guessed. It meant my thoughts weren’t bleeding into Cassidy’s. Instead of two oceans touching, there was a filter between them, refining my control. 

I intentionally looked back into Cassidy’s memories, all the way to the day it started. 

The monster girl also muffled Cassidy’s natural awareness, where Cassidy couldn’t feel my magic at all. 

No wonder that thing tried to make Cassidy avoid me. They were conditions perfect for the monster girl to manipulate her, but also perfect for my powers. 

Cassidy hugged me back. _“I missed you.”_

I couldn’t say _I missed you too_ yet, not until I truly had her back. 

I stayed silent. 

[<3]

I finally got to hug _Cassidy_ . I could hear _her_. 

_She’s alive. Kokoro, she’s actually- Great founder! Cassidy’s alive!_

HP startled when I shouted it in her head. She whipped her head around at me, a complicated expression on her face. 

_Ow! Vedika! That’s great news!_

A mixed message, pain and cheer, and worry as she looked at Bitter Bash, who saw us talking with telepathy and raised her eyebrows. 

Bitter Bash hadn’t said a word. For a serious magical girl, she appeared...shocked, but not scared outwardly. It was the first time I saw her so expressive, out of the few times I saw her in person. 

We had been fighting as a large group the rest of the night. Bud and Bitter Bash sniped monsters from rooftops, with Bud keeping an eye on Cassidy. It was tense, but each girl had entirely different worries. They couldn’t talk with telepathy, so only looks exchanged messages between each of us. 

The barrier reset. I promised Cassidy to come by in the morning and walk with her to school. I wouldn’t leave her alone now. I couldn’t risk staying at her house though, no fighting abilities and no backup if monster girl decided I needed an end to my story. 

Cassidy would never have blood on her hands, I promised myself. 

HP pulled Bitter Bash aside to say something. I didn’t hear it. 

Instead of sleeping, those of us who knew - and Bitter Bash, who I didn’t know if she knew everything or not - went back to the clubroom and discussed everything for hours until we all fell asleep. Gabby was probably annoyed to find us there that morning. 

Undine and Tessa explained to Bitter Bash their side; apparently, she was one of us now. 

I had to suppress a dark thought when I noticed: _a new member if Cassidy can’t come back._ I wondered if I shared some protective, irrational jealousy in common with Cassidy, or if there was some after-effect of touching minds with Cassidy while that monster girl was there. 

I took a while to fall asleep. 

_Now I know for certain._

Cassidy couldn’t consciously remember anything that had happened with the monster girl; all her memories showed was the static and crushing pressure. Her memory was hard-blocked and wrapped in stone after attacking Undine, leaving her team without them knowing, and fighting a few monsters on her own. The next day was fully clouded white, and the next few days mostly. There were occasional white-outs, a lot, but more of Cassidy was present the farther from her hijacking she got. 

The apology she gave Undine and HP _wasn’t_ in _Cassidy’s_ memory, fueling my anger. Only white. 

_This damn imposter monster girl pretending to be Cassidy, to her parents, to her friends - if I have the chance, I will_ end _her. Girl or monster, I’ll do it._

But I knew there was a difference. The incident with Tessa, the apology, they didn’t imprint on her “soul” or “mind”, whatever the word. It wasn’t a part of _Cassidy._ But these other parts _were_ Cassidy. 

_She’s alive!!!_

[<3]

We had that night and two more days to feel relief. Vedika told us everything she could about Cassidy’s state of mind. Tessa looked sick. Her and Undine were having a lot of private conversations over the past few days. 

Vedika… She didn’t seem to notice, but her costume changed when she transformed for training the next night. 

It had been a medium violet dress with gold buttons, no ruffles, and dark purple flat shoes. She wore a dark purple sash over her shoulder and wrapped around her waist. There was gold trim across her costume on the eye pattern on her bisected cape, along the hem of her skirt, and gold strips on the edges of her sash. Her sigil, the eye on her forehead, was a gold charm. 

The buttons down the front of her dress, instead of linking in the middle, had an overlapping strip where they connected. Her dark purple pants had shortened to below her kneecaps. Vedika also had pale violet lace on the edges of her pant cuffs and around her collar. 

Tonight, I saw that Vedika’s sash, instead of a solid color, was now three stripes along its length in the original dark purple, a middle purple, and a pale violet. There were two small bows, one on the end of each of her braids, in gold, shimmery fabric. 

These changes had happened slowly - I only noticed the lace before, and the sash change was this night, directly after Cassidy almost was re-possessed, but the other changes I couldn’t pin on when they had happened. 

The bows and stripes caught my attention. I realized there was no randomness with her costume changes. These were elements from Cassidy’s costume, her swirled tricolor stripes and the large bow she wore on her head. 

Vedika and Cassidy were close, but their costumes never reflected each other. They had opposite personalities. Vedika’s personality was calm, appeasing, maybe because of her dislike of conflict between girls and causing pain. Cassidy was willing to create conflict if she thought it was needed, out of integrity, maybe. I still believed Cassidy wasn’t as selfish as Bud said, but I was “the most optimistic fool” according to Bud. 

Cassidy also had emotions, vocal, burning ones that she tried to hide during the day. I felt it in her fighting and every once in a while in school, and then saw the bitter side to it when watching Vedika’s memory, Cassidy yelling about my safety as she risked Undine’s and accused her of horrible things. 

I still couldn’t understand what Cassidy did. I wanted to slap her. 

I felt horrible about wanting to slap her, seeing as whatever she’s feeling right now must be torture. 

I wish I realized earlier. 

Cassidy showed emotion, always, even when she tried hiding it. I thought Cassidy’s meek behavior and avoidance were from shame for her actions, and trying to minimize the damage she already did. Even when we fought together, she seemed in control, but she was mellow and sheepish, slightly off-balance to the world around her. 

I wasn’t sure how much of her behavior was how Cassidy herself would have acted, or how much was because her memories were so altered. 

When Cassidy and Vedika were near each other, it felt like they balanced each other out, evened their extremes. Maybe we could encourage Cassidy to work on her assumptions and mellow her temper, when she comes back; in the meantime, Vedika’s temper was on a hairpin to compensate, and more than that, Vedika carried the mantle of her best friend in the clothes that showed her heart to the world. 

This caused me to notice, the second night after fighting alongside Cassidy, - 

_Oh Great Founder. What in the-_

-that Undine’s sleeves matched mine now. 

I, of course, started overthinking. 

Then I noticed my own skirt. The ruffles had changed to scallops, like Undine’s skirt. I passed on training with Vedika because I didn’t want her knowing about...well, my personal biz. She doesn’t pry on purpose, but it happens, and we have enough to worry about than silly crushes, right? 

On the third night, I noticed my skirt when transforming for training, and I thought about it as I fought. 

I was distracted. 

I chased after a strong monster I sensed, thinking it was only a rooftop away, to find that it was more than a few streets away from the group, and I didn’t realize I was leaving the group behind. 

The barrier covered the world in red light, the streets a shade of maroon wine, and the windows sky blue. 

I wondered, later, if that night was how Undine felt when she was alone, staring death in the face. 

[<3]

I remember feeling like my heart screamed, burning, before the moment I moved. 

I dodged the poisonous-looking blade but had to stare at someone who, while we never got to be close friends, was someone who I considered myself responsible for their safety. 

It had been quiet after I defeated the large monster - the battle only took a few minutes at best. I stopped to catch my breath and thought about my skirt. 

_Truly,_ are we _that close? Does she want to be teammates too?_

A sudden flare of cold, a strike on a barrel drum - how sensing monsters feels to me, in contrast to my warm magic. On my left. I was angled against a side wall and left, by the passiteria, standing near the middle of the road. I didn’t stand near walls after Undine told me about the monster girl appearing through them. 

I started glancing up, saw the slash of purple and embraced the adrenaline flaring, and jumped ten meters back. 

I locked eyes with “Cassidy”. 

My eyes blinked tears away. 

“Hey, Cassidy. You feeling okay?” 

This time, Cassidy’s skin looked normal. The red bow on her waist was black, and the dark orange of her costume was dark purple, the same as her outfit was before. 

Her eyes were violet, though, with glowing white pupils and sclera, and her hair was duller orange than her normal. 

Last time, Cassidy’s costume seemed to drip that purple sludge from the violet and black parts, and even her skin was pale and tinted purple, too. Cassidy’s irises had been orange but crying thick purple liquid, and she wobbled every time she stepped. 

It looked like she - the monster girl - was more stable in Cassidy’s body, less like it was going to fall apart from her inhabiting it. 

She frowned. “You know I’m not Cassidy. Why are you such a sap?” 

_How am I… it almost would be easier if she taunted me. At least I could act angry about it._

Tears jumped over my cheeks onto the ground. I grabbed my skirt so I wouldn’t wipe at them. 

“Wow, you’re really lame. I thought you were _the great HP! The best magical girl around!_ But you know what?” 

Cassidy’s voice encouraged my trembling muscles. I couldn’t really think beyond the moment right then. 

“You _really are_ weak. You’re just a child. A teenage child fighting battles she barely understands, for some nebulous reason, and guess what?” 

Cassidy stepped forward, scissors held in her right hand. I stayed still. 

“It’ll never leave you. The sudden nightmares of a monster biting your head off, or tearing you apart, or the memories of the girls who _died_ while _you_ lived. And no matter how many girls fight,” she stepped forward, “no matter how many of you come against me and what I’m doing, you won’t win. You won’t last long enough. I’ll be here once - or _if_ \- your peer group all dies from age, if they get the chance. I’ll still be here, getting stronger. I might have my plans completed in your lifetime. And you’ll watch-” step- “everything you care about-” step- “and every memory you have in this place,” step, “every nostalgia and heartbreak. Be destroyed. You’ll watch it burn yourself.” 

She’s in front of my face now, leaning in. 

“How do you feel about that, _Kokoro?”_

She leaned back. 

_“‘The girl who’s made of emotions’. You wouldn’t be who you are without the pain your mother went through, or your father-”_

Cassidy slammed into a wall in a sudden deluge of water. 

_“Aaaauuuuggghhh!”_ Undine’s gutted scream startled me awake, not the watery entrance. 

“Undine? What?” 

I turned and looked up. On the left side roof, Undine stood on the edge and jumped down to me. She secured me in a hug while Bud landed next to her, a gray flower bud the size of Bud’s head pointed at Cassidy, who was laying where she fell, water around her tinted violet. 

I heard other girls land, but my vision was covered in Undine’s blue curls. 

“What are you doing?” 

Undine jolted, staring at my face. “Kokoro? Are you okay? You can hear me? Right?” 

“Yeah, I,” _I’m so dizzy,_ “I’m just...shocked, I…” 

Cassidy put a hand on the ground to push herself up. I pushed Undine behind me. Undine relaxed and grabbed my hand. I heard a whirl of water behind us. 

I felt Undine’s magic through our hands, drumming softly but intensely, like pleasant mist on my face on a warm day. 

I could hear Harley’s breathing behind me, and Vedika’s wheezing, and the metal hum of Bitter Bash summoning her swords, and- 

_Why can I hear Cassidy crying?_

Cassidy’s body stood, holding the left arm that was slammed into the wall on the right side of the street. Bud stood firm in front of our group, deterring Cassidy from a sudden movement. Cassidy panted, glaring at Bud with her glowing, violet eyes. 

I looked to my right, then left, turning to find the source of _our_ Cassidy’s voice. 

“Kokoro?” 

“I can hear Cassidy crying,” I murmured. 

Undine’s expression tensed. Her eyes flicked around, panicked, then slowed to land on Cassidy’s body standing by the wall. 

Where she was standing by the wall. 

Where. 

Standing by the wall. 

Standing by the wall. 

By the wall. 

**By** the **wall.**

 _By the_ **_wall!_ **

_Everyone! Please!_

Cassidy’s voice, disembodied, pleaded with us. Only I heard it. 

_Don’t die like this! Don’t let her kill you!_

There was sorrow _and_ rage. A raw passion and fire in her voice that only Cassidy had, not the fake one. 

_Don’t you dare die! Don’t- Keep your guard up, Vedika! Vedika!_

On my right behind me, Vedika trembles, holding her hands out. I thought maybe she learned how to attack with her powers. 

Vedika’s eyes were glazed, and she shook like she had a fever. 

_Oh founder,_ I thought, _the monster girl got inside Vedika, didn’t she…_

_And, she must…_

_...be in me too. That’s how I hear Cassidy._

Cassidy must have had close contact with the monster girl, and Vedika through connecting with Cassidy’s mind while the monster girl tried to take over. I don’t remember the monster girl touching me this night or the time I previously encountered her in Cassidy’s body, but at some point, she must have gotten in somehow. 

_Guys, please! She’s going to attack, move! Vedika!_

I pivoted, slammed Vedika into Harley’s chest, and braced, pulling Undine with me. 

“Undine, water shield!” 

She pulled the water around us in a dome. 

“Bud!” 

Bud heard and jumped away from Cassidy. Cassidy threw her scissors like a throwing star, slicing both of Bud’s flower buds in an arc. The scissors landed in the wall behind Cassidy, darkened to violet, and melted into the stone. 

Cassidy stepped backward into the violet, churning abyss. 

Bud grabbed her wrist. 

_“Get out of her!”_ Bud screeched. _“You can hate us, you can kill us for being magical girls, but you don’t get to take her life away like_ this! _Get-! Out!”_

Cassidy pulled against Bud’s grip - Bud wasn’t letting go. 

Cassidy’s real voice whispered in my mind. 

_Bud…_

Vedika lunged forward, grabbing Cassidy’s left wrist. 

_“Cass-i-dyyyy!”_

_Vedika, don’t! She’ll kill you!_ Cassidy begged. _I…_ The next part was a whisper to herself. _I can’t believe you guys care this much…_

_I-T- -C-L-I-C-K-E-D-._

I jumped towards the three girls. “Undine, you got me?”

“Yeah!” Undine wrapped water around my feet and held onto my right arm. 

The power burning in my chest moved to my hand. My left arm guard glowed, and the heart on top pulsed. 

Cassidy, with Bud and Vedika holding her in place - Vedika’s face twisted in pain - halfway through the portal, possessed by the monster girl, showed fear for the first time. 

“What are you _doing?”_ Cassidy yanked to the side, but Vedika’s grip didn’t loosen. 

“I figured it out,” I spoke as I called more power to my hand. “My power is made of emotion, right? It’s made to reach other’s _hearts,_ their _feelings,_ who they really are.”

The monster girl stared in horror. I could hear her thoughts, too, the jumbled mess of Cassidy and the monster and Vedika and me, all of our feelings flying in a tornado around a central point - the monster girl drawing us into her domain with whatever power she has, one that made me taste bitter despair and my tears and feel the black of my costume try to creep back again. 

Now that she’s pulled us in, she can’t get us away from her. 

_Vedika, your power is to reach people’s minds. To bridge the communication gap, showing memories and spoken words and tying people together._

_We’re two halves._

_Mind and heart._

Vedika gasped aloud. 

“You got it?” I yelled over the wind, now roaring in the real world around us. 

“I heard you!” She tightened her grip on Cassidy’s wrist. The pendant on her forehead glowed gold, and she shut her eyes. 

Cassidy - the monster girl - stilled, gaze looking past me. 

Bud jerked a glare at me. “Whatever you’re doing, hurry up! The wind’s gonna tear us apart!” 

_Vedika, do you have it?_

_Yes!_

_Spinning spinning down drowning not drowning floating floating up - - -_

_Cassidy drawing a picture of herself in kindergarten. She had a magical girl outfit that didn’t end up looking like the one she gained when older, but the bow on top is the same._

_Cassidy lays on the ground and cries. Her cheek burns with gravel. An adult offers to help her up. She stands on her own. Even if other kids punched her, she has to be a strong hero, so she can’t take their help. Heroes help others, not get help themselves._

_“Please, help me…”_

_Cassidy admires her new poster of Heartful Punch on her wall. Other girls only care about dumb worries like if someone likes them, or their grades, but strong Magical Girls like Heartful Punch care about what really matters! Saving people!_

_Cassidy walks alone on the street. The barrier is black with white, gray hands mocking her as they move to look like scissors when she gets close._

_If Undine has a secret, shouldn’t we all know? Especially because it puts HP in danger! It puts Vedika in danger, too, and Harley, Bud, everyone! Why are they mad?_

_She cut down two cat creatures and thought to herself._

_It was the_ how _I did it, I guess._

_She saw Vedika’s face in her thoughts._

_That’s why she reacted like that…_

_… Heroes know when they’re in the right._

_Do I?_

_Cassidy heard a voice echoing in the empty street._

_/Oh, who’s this?/_

_What are you? Who are you? Where?_

_It laughed. Cassidy backed against a wall. It kept laughing._

_Arms locked around her throat._

_\- - wh-i - -te - - b-la a- n- -k k-k - -_

_“Why do you want to be a magical girl, Cassy?” Mom asks me._

_I think about it, all the things I love about magical girls._

_“I want to be a hero to someone else!” Like they all are to me, for every person in danger._

_I want to be someone who saves others and protects them from their fears._

_“Cassidy!” I yelled into the churning noise. “We hear you! We’re right here!_

_“I know you want to be a hero. Even heroes need help! I need YOUR help! Please! Take my hand, we’ll help each other!”_

_“Cassidy!” Vedika shouted. “Take our hands! I’m right here, Heartful is too! Don’t leave us! Come back! Please, I’m begging you!”_

_Cassidy appeared in front of us, in the eye of the storm. The three of of stood in the calm circle. We were all transformed, in our costumes. The malice and fear of the thing holding us here swirled but couldn’t touch us anymore._

_“Cassidy?” Vedika asked._

_Cassidy squeezed her in a hug._

_“When we get out of here, remind me to buy you those chocolates you like. I was supposed to get them the other day but I forgot.”_

_Vedika stroked Cassidy’s head._

_“I’ll let you know.”_

Out loud, I heard Vedika and Cassidy’s voices. 

“Do it, Kokoro!!!!” 

I yelled, thrusting my heart into my punch - irritation, exasperation, loneliness, hope, mirth, peace, anger, grief, fear for others, love for others. 

The world shone white. 

My knuckles hit Cassidy’s chest. I felt our emotions as one, in the span of a raindrop hitting the pavement. 

The flash vanished. Cassidy’s eyes closed. Her body flashed orange, her costume changed, she fell forward, depowered. 

Bud, Vedika, Undine, and I fell in a pile, catching her. 

I gasped for breath, looking at Cassidy’s tan brown hair. Vedika cradled her head to her chest. 

Bud let go of her wrist and wheezed. “Some punch, HP.” 

“Yeah,” I murmured, leaning into Undine. “I think I’m gonna take a nap now.” 

I saw the air flash pink before I fell asleep, tilting to the right as Undine’s hand stroked my bangs away from my face. 

[<3]

Harley blinked at us, dissipating her knuckle dusters. 

“What the hell did you guys do?” 

Kokoro in Undine’s arms lifted my lips and my spirits. 

Cassidy breathing in my arms let me breathe again. 

“We brought her home, now. Sleep tight, guys.” 

Bud watched me for some reason. 

“Bud,” I asked, “I can’t carry Cassidy alone. Some help?” 

Undine chuckled. “Harley, want to lift some _weight?”_

**[[ <3]]**


End file.
